Café Zitouna

Now reopened after a five-month break, this sunny Tenderloin café is San Francisco's only Tunisian restaurant, with a sideline in Moroccan dishes. We're partial to the owner's take on chakchouka, a crimson mass of satiny peppers, onions and house-made Merguez sausages topped with eggs, as well as his kufte (meatball) tagine, a conflagration of spices. We end every meal there with mint tea and slices of harissa (not the spice mix), a semolina cake perfumed with orange water.